Letum's Sith Trials
Letum continues to get up slowly. He has just regained his connection to the Force. He watches the lightning dart across the sky. The large rocks off in the distance being his only guide or landmark -- he heads that way. The sky doesn't shift colors, save for the occasional lightning strike followed swiftly by the sounds of rumbling thunder. While the landscape is seemingly barren and lifeless, there are the rocks that serve as some sort of guideline. Where they lead, however, is a mystery at this point. As the Sith, Letum, walks along, minutes then likely hours pass, when suddenly he gets a shift in the Force, the feeling of an impending attack on his person. Letum senses the danger coming and prepares to defend himself. He steadies his vibro-axe staff and prepares to fight. This was what he was born to do. From seemingly out of nowhere, perhaps from one of the rocks that litter the landscape, a seeker droid appears. It's about half a meter wide, bristling with blasters as well as sensors, allowing the droid the capacity to both see and hit any targets it's been assigned to kill. Tonight, that target is Letum, and upon seeing the beetle-like creature, the assassin droid fires. Seeing his attacker the beetle knows he must destroy it. With a few quick steps and a little bit of cover from the rocks, the Krytollak avoids the first volley. He shakes his head and begins to focus his rage. A red ball begins to form in Letum's spare hand. It surges to life with the Force. This will be a present for this droid. The assassin droid cares not about the bolt of intense hatred and pure energy in Letum's hand. Why? Because the droid has no feelings of fear, or trepidation, and because the droid knows not what the ball signifies. It does know its task, and it follows in that assignment unflinchingly. Once more, a shot is fired, sending a crimson bolt toward the shell-armored being, hitting the Sith with careful precision, though the blast is weak and the armor absorbs much of the damage. As the battle gets underway the raging ball of hate in the Sith's hand is begining to form to it's full state. With the droid continuing forward, the shot it fires hits and shocks the beetle. This momentary lapse cause the Sith to loose his focus on the Force and thus the small ball in his hand disappears. So he angers even more. Letum reaches deep into the Force and calls fourth energy to surge forward against the droid. The bolts drill into the orb without any delay.. the result is an explosion and the end of this droid's existance. Letum seems momentarily content with removing the droid. He knows this will not be the end of his trials. He focuses a little on the Force relinking with it. He lets the Force watch his back as the Beetle proceeds further into the unknown surroundings of this world. Again, there is walking, walking through the barren world amidst the constant cacophany of thunder created by lightning. It's a dark and foreboding world, with no signs of life save for the mechanical kind, if that can even be called life. Another large chunk of time passes, though now it's not nearly as long as the one before. This time, the Sith's ability to detect his own impending doom does not react; no feelings are given to the alien. That is because the multiple droids appearing now do not have immediate intentions of attack; they are merely showing themselves. These are similar to the one that attacked Letum earlier, though their choice of weaponry is different. Arrayed equidistantly across their circular chassis are large vibroblades affixed to mobile arms, four in all. All three droids spin in space, alternately wielding and sheathing each weapon as the arms fold and unfold into their chassis. The journey reveals more and more to the beetle. This is a land designed for those who would come to be Sith. This is a place of no emotion. The perfect place to test one's hate, to test if one can survive even in the most barren of situations. The three new attackers, pose an interesting option to the beetle. This would be melee combat. Something this beetle was alright at. He focuses on the nearest to him and prepares to battle. After the Sith has spotted the arrival, and as if on cue, the droids decide to make good their attack. Each of them chooses a blade, one that's convenient based on their current positioning, and moves in toward the Krytollak. Swinging their blades forward, the trio of synchronous droids attempt to slice through the beetle-like alien, their blades whirring and whooshing through the air as they vibrate. The battle once again is upon the Sith. He lives for the sense of battle all around him. He picks his first target and goes deep into the Force. Once again he brings fourth his hate in the form of an attack against the droids. The pure energy exits his fingers and lunges toward the first droid. The bolt hits it's mark but only seems to have a minor effect on the droid. One of the droids is hit by the bolt of lightning and sent flying away a few meters, spinning as it rotates on its vertical axis. It's not out of the fight, certainly not yet, though for now, it can do nothing to aid the other two. They seem to be holding their own, however, as both of them press their attacks. Blades whir through the air once more, signalling death to those who are uncautious or unprepared. As before, there is a hit, but this time two, though the thick armored shell of the Krytollak seems to protect him once more. Letum looks to his three attackers and decides that it is time he must attempt to even the odds. He reaches to the Force to hide him from the sensors of the droids. He is only able to remove one of them from the melee. The beetle, readies himself to defend against the remaining droids. His own vibro-axe staff raging to life. Through their powerful sensors, and perhaps a bit of luck (in my experience, there's no such thing as luck), two of the droids are able to keep a bead on the alien, though the third looks around, beeping in confusion as to how the Krytollak could have so effortlessly evaded his sensors. Those with good vision, however, do not dwell on that problem, as instead they go into a horizontal spin, lashing out with their vibroblades in a clear attempt to sever the large Krytollak in multiple pieces. Letum focuses on his attackers. He goes back to his roots and his weapon of choice, his vibro-axe staff. The death bringer whirls around the head of the beetle and comes crashing into the droid. The machine explodes and parts fly everywhere. Letum's attention now turns to the other droid. With one droid blasted, and the other momentarily blinded, the last takes it upon himself to finish off this nemesis once and for all. Armed with the only four weapons that it has, the mechanical beast spins vertically on its horizontal axis, chopping down atop the head of the Krytollak. If the droid could curse, it just may, as once again, the thick shell of the beetle is enough to make useless even the power of the vibroblade. Focus.. that is the word to describe the attackers mentality. He breathes heavily and then twirls his racial weapon toward the new attacker. The vibro-axe staff sails through the droid's weak hull, and it explodes into pieces. The beetle likes the way this battle has turned.. For now. He turns to the remaining blind droid and moves to destroy it. The remaining droid, as mentioned, is still unable to see through the cloak of the Force that is enveloping the Krytollak. An intermittent beeping can be heard as the confused assassin droid looks around, still trying in vain to spot its wayward foe. Knowing that it cannot, the droid decides a different tactic is in order: it runs. Flying away at great haste, it moves up into the air, choosing to press its attack later when the Sith is not invisible. With only one left the beetle begins to focus his energy on the remaining attacker, as it flees the beetle shakes his head. "Even droids flee in fear." he reaches out to the Force. He removes his shroud of the Force and instead uses his new found dislike of battle droids to launch and attack forward on the machine. His bolts of energy lunge fourth and send the machine crashing to the ground, hurt but not destroyed. The arcs of electricity burn through the shell of the droid, though they don't do enough to demolish the circuitry inside. The repulsorlift, however, is badly damaged, so much so that the assassin machine can no longer fly and falls back to the ground, impacting with a light thud and the sound of its CPU squeaking. It still tries to attack, lashing out with its weapons in a vain attempt to strike back at its assailant. Letum continues to breath with combat heavy chest rises and falls. With the whirling killing machine now stuck on the ground, the beetle walks slowly toward it. He looks down and strikes the ball of metal and circuits with his vibro-axe, ending its functionality. With a quick look at his handiwork the beetle finds a moment to think. He sees a small clearing to collect his thoughts and meditate into his rage and use it to aide him further in these trials. The Caves After his battle with the stand up killer droids the beetle composes himself. With his Danger Sense up he begins to move toward the large rock formations near him. His focus is all around, trying to get his bearings. After some time, it becomes clear that the rock formation ahead of the beetle is in fact the entrance to a cave. The entrance is large enough for several people to walk through side by side, but it's so dark as to make it impossible for most beings to see inside. There is little else around; nothing but the barren landscape of the planet and the rocks that seem to be without end. The beetle prepares to enter the cave. He looks about the entrance for any sign of the droids that have been attacking him this entire trip. He also tends to his vibro-axe staff and assure it's ready for battle. After a little time getting ready the beetle heads into the cave. His step is slow and paced attempting to take in everything that may or may not be ongoing. Even though the Krytollak has used the Force to enhance his vision, and now the light pour particularly bright into his eyes, the armor-shelled creature can see nothing. It's a miracle that the alien is even able to see at all, as if the cave network into which he's wandering has somehow been shrouded in the dark side, preventing any sort of glimpses into the depths of its darkness. Letum moves slowly through the darkness. He hopes the Force will come to him eventually and guide him through the darkness. He tunes himself into his rage. His starts his vibro-axe with a humm it roars to life. Something is waiting for him, he knows this much. There seems to be no rest for the weary, or sight for the blind, in this case, as the darkness has not yet parted to reveal what is hidden within the cave. Though the Force hasn't allowed the Krytollak to see past the veil, it has given him a certain amount of knowledge: he will be attacked soon, and the creature, droid, being, will certainly not be gentle. Within the darkness the beetle senses his coming battle. He reaches to the Force to cover him in its darkness. Moments later he covered in its shroud. He tries slowly to get his bearings in this evil cave. For a while now, there has been a creature stalking Letum, slipping through the darkness or sliding in through the crevices and cracks in the walls of the cave. Eventually, the creature decides to attack, moving swiftly in toward the Beetle. The Krytollak tries to disappear, as the creature seems to have already done, yet the being is so intent on attacking the Sith that he's able to see through the shroud of the Force. Eventually, he makes good his attack, spinning strangely and slicing with giant, razorsharp fins, though the attack that would easily kill most beings somehow is miraculously blocked by the Sith's armored hide. The battle is underway but the beetle is unable to launch any sort of attack at this time. Letum tries to use his Force skills to help his cause. But is unable to suceed. He grows angry with his unability to get the advantage in this battle. He tries to get a better sense of his attacker. The strange creature, the kheilwar, the homunculus wasp of Af'El, is rather tough, even against the Force. While the Krytollak attempts to hinder the senses of his attacker, he fails to do so, and he also fails to prevent the creature from attacking him. Once more, the kheilwar lashes out with its fins, slashing and shredding, and this time even cutting through the armored beetle's defenses, but only slightly, just enough to faze the Sith. The battle rages on.. well for the kheilwar it is. A blast to the face with a fin is the last thing the beetle experience before hitting the floor of the cave. He slumps over with a heavy breath. The beetle takes moment from his prone position to look to the Force for guidance to help him combat this beast he can hardly see. He thinks about the fight, and uses the Force to try and find a weak point. The kheilwar is relentless, not caring about the damage he's done to the Sith or the fact that it's dark. The strange, razor-thin creature keeps up its attacks, spinning wildly and almost flailing as it tries its best to slaughter the Sith who has wandered into its current residence. Hate is Letum's motivation at this venture. He has yet to land a hit on this beast, nor does he really have an idea of what.. it is. His hate surges as he continues to focus on the dark side. He lifts his hand and sends outward a web of the darkside. The only way to beat this creature is to allow the Force to guide him to victory. The web wraps around and envelops the strange beast, sapping away some of its strength, though it presses past the awkward pain of holding up its own weight. Almost sluggishly, though with certainly less skill and strength, the being attacks, slicing again at the Krytollak. However easy it is for him to hit the Sith, it's quite difficult now to puncture the thick armor, due to the sapping effects of the dark side. The battle in the cave is a true test of will between the two combatants. Letum, after releasing a Dark Side Web on his attacker calls to the Force once more for an attack. He lifts a hand and summons the dark electrical energy of the Force to surge outward. The bolts find the target, but don't seem to do much damage to the finned beast. While the bolt does no actual damage to the strange, dark beast, it does cause it to reel back. One of its finned hands comes up to block the spot where its eyes should be as the beast screams in pain. It doesn't fight back for now, merely recoiling while covering itself up, trying to regain its composure after the attack. The beetle gets to his feet. He now has an idea where the attacker is coming from. His hand extends once more, and blue electrical energy springs fourth into the beast. Letum is relentless, continuing to send the bolts forward. The smell of burnt fin begins to fill the air. The creature screams again in agony, though this time it's a direct result of the lightning that has begun to course through its body. Flailing, the finned beast falls backward, hitting the wall of the cave then slumping over. His flesh and form are singed, smoking from the burns that have now knocked the creature out. The beetle makes his way to the carcass of the beast. He studies the thing for a long moment, to better understand what just attacked him. If Letum could smile he would, instead anther flurry of lightning bolts expel forward into the attack. The pain is clear in the creatures eyes but it doesn't stop Letum. This thing will pay for what it has done. Letum decides to move on. With his attacker no longer the Sith looks about the Darkness. He tries to focus on the surroundings, but the dark side is so overpowering here. His steps are slow and very careful. Letum stumbles through the darkness. He angers even more than before. The route of his hate comes from his percieved failure, his failure to know what the hell is going on. Trying to find his way the beetle calls on the Force to watch his back, from potential attackers, and other dangers. The smell of this place bothers the beetle somewhat. After walking through the dark, carefully and slowly, Letum finally gets a break, of sorts. A large explosion up ahead causes an even larger hole to form in the rock of the cave. Beyond, through the hole, light can easily be seen, though it silhouettes the form of a strange, tower-shaped droid that sits on treads. It doesn't attack yet, but the Krytollak can easily sense incoming danger. The Sith sees the grand arrival of this droid. In the back of his mind he wonder where in hell they all come from. The beetle snaps back into reality and turns to the Force for combat help. The clarity of the battle is once again on the beetle's side as he stands ready for whatever this thing might throw at him. A hole opens up in the tower droid's chassis, revealing a large repulsorlift ball that flies out with incredible speed. The thing flies directly toward Letum, moving too fast for most to see but fortunately the Sith has the aid of the Force. It explodes when within range of the man, but fortunately he's been lucky enough to get out of the way without getting blown up in the process. Letum watches the ball fly by him. That was unexpected. The beetle's knee jerk reaction is to lash out with the Force. Lightning flies out of his hands with anger and hate toward the droid. It sinks into the robot, with little damage apparent. The lightning strikes the droid rather easily, though the energy merely courses over the metallic hide of the droid. It's only a mere distraction for the droid, who once more launches one of the repulsorlift balls at the Sith. This time, he isn't able to juke out of the way, as the ball is too fast and he had to concentrate on the lightning before. With a vicious explosion, the repulsorball rocks the Krytollak's body, though only doing enough to faze him. Letum coughs black blood as the ball hits him in the chest. He uses his axe-staff to steady himself, at the same time his right hand begins to glow. Within his palm forms an orb of hate. The dark energy is very powerful when used correctly and the beetle hopes to do just that. A quick throw forward sends the ball of darkness directly into the droid with a spray of sparks and debris. The blast is powerful enough to shatter the droid's armored shell with a loud crack and sizzle. The tower droid doesn't fall over, as it's stable on its treads, but it does visibly shut down, too damaged to continue for now, though it could be easily repaired in the future. Letum looks to the light that is coming from where the tower droid was. He looks about the area around him for any markings or indications of where he is. He looks to the Force to help watch his back for attackers. There doesn't seem to be any movement in the caves, and the senses of the large beetle have not yet gone off. There is just light pouring through the large hole that the tower droid made, and since it's the only source of light in the entire cave system, it's likely the way to go. Letum moves rapidly toward the hole, once at that location he looks over the remain of the tower droid for anything of use, tools, materials, etc. He lets his eyes adjust to the new lighting. The lighted area is a large cave with something of a sun roof. It's quite easy for Letum to see a pedestal at the opposite end of the cave which has several small metalic pieces on it. However, there is a large chasm between Letum and that pedestal, but that's the least of his worries. There is the sound of roaring and rumbling as a huge beast makes his way into the middle of the cave. The rancor begins to stare down the Krytollak, though he doesn't begin to attack. The beetle quickly moves for cover. The sight of the rancor was not uncommon for the beetle, having spent some time in places where they are kept. This will be the first wild one. An outjut of rocks is where the beetle hides for the moment, taking this opportunity to turn to the Force to help him in Combat. He feels the clarity of thought and the focus on his enemy instantly. It's not hard for the rancor to see where the Krytollak went, so the giant creature makes his way there. With the Sith hiding behind some rocks, his attacker doesn't try to swipe him down. Instead, he merely picks up the rocks that the Sith is hiding behind and throws them behind him out of the way. With the Krytollak now exposed, the rancor lets out a loud roar, his intentions quite clear. Letum watches the rocks get flung away from him. He drops his vibro-axe staff and begins to back track rapidly. His movements are smooth as he looks to the Force to hide him in its darkness. After a second his image begins to fade from the view of the rancor. With a new found advantage the beetle attempts to find a good location to launch his attacks from. With the Force wrapping itself around Letum, the rancor becomes completely unable to see where the Krytollak is. Still, he decides to attack, stepping forward ponderously and swinging his arms wildly, though of course he's unable to hit the invisible Krytollak. From his invisible vantage point the beetle prepares for battle. He will constantly stagger his position in order to attempt confuse the beast. He prepares a volley of hate and the ball forms in his hand with a launch forward the ball crashes into the rancor but doesn't have the massive effect the beetle wants. Though the rancor can't see the Krytollak, he continues moving forward in the general direction that the Krytollak was headed. Fortunately for the rancor, the Sith decides to draw up the bolt of hatred, which instantly becomes visible as it's thrown. Though he can't exactly pinpoint the source of the throw, the rancor still swings out toward it, swiping with his long arm and claws toward the Sith. Amazingly enough, it connects, cutting deeply into Letum's body with enough power to knock a normal being out. The beetle come crashing to the ground via the massive paw of the beast. His cloak of the Force disappears as he flys through the air and lands into a rock wall. The beetle sags to near death -- the Force keeps him alive however. The pain is incredible when Letum quickly revives, he focuses on the Force to remove the pain and manages to clear it from his thoughts. He looks down the cavern to the new coming threat. This is going to get more interesting. The rancor is relentless, or perhaps it's just hungry. It is surprised by the strength of the Sith, who managed to stay awake after a blow that would kill most beings. Still, the surprise isn't enough to prevent the rancor from attacking again, and he swings his long, claw-tipped arm at the alien, once more ripping shreds into the alien's armored flesh. Well seen as how this was less of a fight and more of an ass kicking the beetle gets his due. The last swing from the beast is just too much for Letum. He is unable to control the pain within him. The useless life that was this Sith passes before him as he is absorbed into one large feeling of pain and suffering. The wounds will bleed for quite some time, unless the beast decides to eat him. Though the taste of this meal will be bitter and gross. For failure is never something good. The beetle will not be missed, few even knew of his existence. His long hours of work and training summed up in one brief encounter with a rancor. His trials in life, summed up by his trials as a Sith. Like a party goer denied access to a club this beetle was never welcome among the elite. His hope to serve the darkside for a long time, has now come to an ending that is suited to how he was viewed -- as nothing. He is nothing more than this mortally wounded sack of meat, soon to be forgotten by the passage of time and space. The rancor cares not for the life of the Sith; it doesn't even know why it's been placed here. All it knows is that it's hungry, and the Krytollak seems like a tasty and crunchy meal. Callously, the giant creature picks up the bleeding body and pops it in his mouth, chewing and crunching as it breaks through the armored shell of the alien then swallows him almost whole.